How tax cut revolt helps Obama: It's a page from Clinton playbook

Perhaps President Obama's tax-cut deal with the GOP was astute, after all.

While he angered liberals, he also won back some independent support – an example of Clintonian 'triangulation.'

By Linda Feldmann, Staff writer
December 10, 2010

Washington
Former President Clinton’s impromptu press conference in the White House briefing room Friday – in which he announced his support of President Obama’s tax-cut deal with the Republicans – could not have put in sharper relief the new political landscape in Washington.
Sixteen years ago, Mr. Clinton was in the same situation Mr. Obama finds himself in today: the Democratic majority in Congress swept out of power, and the need to rethink how policy is formed. For Clinton, the answer was “triangulation,â€